


(write my name over yours) & call it mine

by LinaxLight (domilesl)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff and Smut, POV Ben Solo, Professor Ben Solo, Rey Kenobi, Rey is a tutor, Soft Ben Solo, ben and rose are sibs, rey is a firecracker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-01-24 11:22:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/domilesl/pseuds/LinaxLight
Summary: Ben Solo, professor and coffee addict, is starting to get irritated when someone keeps grabbing his coffee by mistake. His initials on his cup are "K.R.". The culprit goes under the initials "R.K.". Who knew grabbing coffee could be so hard?
Relationships: Kylo Ren & Rey, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey & Rose Tico
Comments: 14
Kudos: 94





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> clearly I was at Starbucks when the inspiration struck. *shrugs*

“Flat White for K.R.!”

Clutching his portfolios and his laptop bag close to him, Ben shoved his way past the waiting line to pick up his coffee on the shelf where the barista placed it. The coffee shop was brimming with about thirty to forty university students and staff members all fighting for their chance at a caffeinated day. 

It was Monday morning. 

Usually, Ben pops in his keurig and takes his coffee at home. However, ever since Rose recently moved in from San Francisco to help with their mom’s treatment, his stock of coffee dwindled down to zero. She’s yet to restock—she claims it’s because she’s conveniently switched over to tea now—and with the office hours Ben has to manage now that he’s juggling both undergrad and grad students—

“Shit!”

While trying to work his way through the crowd, someone snuck by and grabbed his coffee. He looks around bewildered—thankfully he’s over six feet tall—yet he can’t spot anyone who might have snagged his drink. 

Irritated, he shoves again to the front of the line, where he reasonably (not in a loud voice, mind you) explains to the cashier that someone grabbed his drink by mistake. The unbothered student (with a face full of that goth emo makeup shit or whatever they call it now) tells him that she’ll get another drink made right away. As he’s walking away from the counter to get out of this awful crowd, he hears the barista call out his order again:

“Flat white for R.K!”

Relieved that the goth cashier respected his inward desire to get the hell away from the coffee shop, he scoops up the festive cup (with the eco friendly lid, thank you very much) and heads out to his office across campus. 

Being in academia was hard. But being in academia and working with undergrads was even harder. 

Truthfully, Ben didn’t know why he even offered to stretch out his teaching to undergrad. He figured it would help the semester fly by faster—fall semesters had their way of seeming unbearably long—and since he only taught one other class, no big deal right?

He quickly learned his lesson a few weeks ago when the semester started when he asked his “Introduction to Neuroscience” class to explain RNA synthesis and they stared back at him like he grew three heads (which happens occasionally, but rarely at school). 

Knowing that the semester was well underway already, Ben thought best not to fret and try to teach his kids something valuable about his area of expertise. So far so good—there’s only been one fit of rage in front of his class. 

God forbid they ever forget what gray matter versus white matter is again. 

Upon reaching his office, he can’t help but smile at the decorations gracing his doorway. Even though Halloween has just ended two days ago, the holiday spirit of Christmas was well underway. Rose popped in on him for a lunch date yesterday and was horrified to learn that his only decorations consisted of a small pumpkin on his mahogany desk. Deeming it necessary, she decorated his outside doorway and his desk with wreaths and evergreen pine and ornaments. 

He really couldn’t say no, could he? 

He plops his bag, folders, and coffee onto his desk and he settles down in his chair. He figures there’s no harm in turning on the Christmas radio from his computer, and sets up his work. 

As he’s beginning his lesson plans for the next week, he takes a heavy swig from the coffee cup. At first he doesn’t think anything of it—but then the string taste of vanilla comes hurling at his tongue. So much so, he physically contorts his face and scrunches up his nose. 

This isn’t his coffee. 

He carefully examines the foam in the coffee cup. In his hurry to get out of the coffee shop, he failed to notice the foam texture of his beverage. Usually, flat whites are decorative and have this heavy foam signature to it. While the drink he has is foamy, the lack of decor and whipping and dark texture tells the truth that he is holding a latte,  _ not _ a flat white. 

After considering braving the cold Chicago wind for  _ just _ two minutes to go back across campus and correct their mistake, he thinks better of it and decides to drink the latte. It’s downright horrible—the milk to coffee ratio is just  _ wrong _ . But, he knows the splitting headache he’ll get if he forgoes coffee. 

Lesson plans were never more fun. 

*

With the sun setting sooner and the nights growing longer, Ben’s body is forcing out a yawn at only 4:45pm. He’s nearly done with his work and although he thinks about staying longer to get a start on next week’s lessons, he knows his head will drop a little lower and his eyes will start shutting. 

So he decided to go back for more coffee.

The university’s own cafeteria is probably the worst in the Midwest. The coffee's never made right, they somehow always run out of soup, and the vending machines only contain “healthy” drinks that consists of water and Gatorade. He’d be damned if he ever tried stepping foot in there again. 

As he enters the coffee shop, he appreciates the emptiness of it all. Earlier this morning, it was a madhouse. Now, the Christmas radio fills the shop with mellowness that only Bing Crosby can bring. Only select students are studying here, the shop now containing more instructors that he faintly recognizes. 

Ben struts over to the register and orders his flat white. He debates about mentioning the debacle from this morning, but the emo goth cashier is no longer there, and he’ll probably ruin whatever jolly spirit is here with his grinch-self. 

While waiting, he plops his stuff down in a corner with an outlet. Looking around a bit more closer, Ben realizes just how decorated this shop is. It’s only what, the second of November, and the shelves have lights, garland, and Santa’s all around. There’s even that creepy “Elf on the Shelf” toy hugging a black mug with the shop’s logo on it. The Christmas music only enhances the decorations that much more. He briefly thinks about bringing Rose here when they call out his order to be picked up:

“Flat white for K.R.!”

In a rush to try and get his order, he accidentally knocks off the laptop from the charger, sending it crash landing to the floor. Muttering curses, he’s reorganizing himself when he hears them out call the order again:

“Flat white for R.K.!”

He stalks over, grabs his coffee, and returns back to his station. 

As he’s grading annotated bibliographies, he takes a swig of his coffee again—and the vanilla flavor is there again—

“Excuse me.”

He grabs the attention of a nearby employee who is wiping down the tables around him. “Did you change how you make the flat white here? My order hasn’t been correct both times today.” There. No harshness in his voice (at least he thinks so). 

The employee indeed confirms that no, the recipe has not changed, and no, she has no idea why there’s vanilla in there. She takes the wrong order from him and brings back the correct version he wanted. 

Ben, thankful that someone up there is looking out for him after all, takes his deliciously not-vanilla flat white and downs it in one go. As he lowers the cup from his mouth, he notices the writing on the cup. Across the snowflakes that decorate the cup, there’s sharpie written with “R.K.” on it. 

The moniker of Kylo Ren, the name he goes by due to the overwhelmingly popular last name he has, is spelled backwards. R.K.? He wonders if the cashier is an English major who seems it's necessary to put the last name first. 

*

Across campus, Rey Kenobi is gunning it to her car to try and make it to work on time (five minutes, give or take). As she settles herself into the driver's seat, she takes a look at her flat white with suspicion.

Earlier this morning, the flat white she had ordered was bland and sour. They obviously forgot to put in her four shots of vanilla flavoring, so she was stuck drinking the devil’s juice. She goes to drink out of her cup again, and surprise surprise, it’s bland. She debates going back to get her damn coffee  _ again _ but realizes she’s already going to be backed up on the highway trying to reach her tutoring job. 

Irritated, she speeds out of the coffee shop parking lot, attempting not to coil at the bitterness of her coffee. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this a perfect time to say that even though I have a degree in Neuroscience, I am clueless about the brain :)
> 
> also, yes, this was supposed to be a christmas fic don't @ me

_ Last Christmas, I gave you my heart— _

Ben is in the coffee and tea aisle shopping for k-pods, grooving to the smooth tone of George Michael’s voice. 

His favorite brand is still out of stock. They’ve been sold out due to a special sale they had last week—buy one, get two free—and they sold like hot cakes. Deciding to forego the coffee, he picks up a box of cereal instead. 

Ever since his coffee fiasco two weeks ago, he’s avoided that particular coffee shop like the plague. It wasn’t really their fault, but he wasn’t intrigued to find out why that day went horribly wrong for him. (He knew he was being ridiculous for thinking that two wrong orders of coffee was enough to label a day “horrible”, but hey, here he was.)

  
  


The lines for checkout were ridiculously long. He knew better than to be out at Target on a Saturday night, right when everyone was busy doing their weekend errands. Throw in a bunch of kids and their overtired mothers chasing them around the toy section, and he was ready to run out. The only fortunate thing was that the store was right next to campus, so it didn’t really make sense to go out of his way to another place. 

As he was at the self checkout, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the air. Ah yes, he could smell the Colombian coffee beans releasing their scent as the machine grounded them out. The line for coffee was naturally just as long as the checkout lines were, but he figured he could wait a little bit more anyways. The caffeine was worth the wait. 

Standing in line, Ben bore his eyes into his phone until it was his turn to order. He ordered his typical flat white, emphasis on  _ no sugar or flavorings, much thanks _ , and stood off to the side until his name was called.

“Flat white, K.R.!”

Still checking his faculty emails, he went back to reach for his drink, but had to do a double take from his phone to his hand reaching where his drink was supposed to be. _Supposed to be. _

“What the fuck,” he muttered in awe, lowering his phone from his face. 

Surely,  _ surely _ , this couldn’t be happening again. He cursed himself as he did a couple of twirls trying to see if anyone who ordered might have taken his order by accident. 

“Excuse me,” he attempted to get the attention of the nearby, “I think someone grabbed my cup. Did you see who it was?” 

The barista, her name tag read  _ Jannah _ , widened her eyes a bit when she glanced at her. Her face was faintly familiar, perhaps a prior student of his? She recovered quickly from her reverie and stuttered, “I-I think she left already? She had three buns on her head.” She points to the direction of a figure with a three part bun hairstyle, moving her way through the crowd and into the parking lot. 

He doesn’t even bother thanking the young woman, and proceeds to speed walk past the swarm of people leaving and entering the building. 

He’s grateful for his long figure but not even his long gait enabled him to catch up to the three bun headed girl. He draws in an exasperated sigh, slightly shocked by the train of events, and heads to his car, ignoring the groups of teenagers who leave the store with a frappe in each of their hands. 

*

The semester was more than halfway through. 

November was speeding up quickly, which meant that finals were looming around the corner. Ben usually gets in a flood of emails around the second week of November from struggling students barely realizing that their C- is dangerously close to staying a C- or worse. He’s currently in his office, replying back to these emails he’s working on getting them a tutor.

New students, same habits. 

The problem is that his usual student tutor, Poe Dameron, a talented researcher, graduated the semester before. He would usually recommend Poe as a tutor to help them bring their grades. 

Now, he looks at the long list of tutors that the university has to offer. 

His second problem is that there are no neuroscience tutors on campus. 

His third problem is that the only other tutors available to help his students are helmed by the biology department, and who else but his esteemed uncle Luke is the department chair. 

He could just let his students fail. That would be the easier option. 

Entertaining thought, but he’s already getting out of his seat to go up a floor to talk to Luke. 

He shouldn’t be surprised to see a student inside Luke’s office, grasping at every word that leaves his uncle’s mouth. What  _ does _ surprise him is that the student is a young woman with three buns on her head. 

“Ben, it’s impolite to stare.” Luke chastises him. 

Ben quickly snaps out of his reverie, confused by his own actions, and shuts the door behind him. He had only been staring for a few seconds, but his uncle and the young woman snickered like teenage besties who share an inside secret. 

He really hates it here. 

“Rey, this is my nephew and fellow colleague, Professor Solo.” He gestures towards Ben, and Rey stands up to shake Ben’s hand. 

“Pleasure to meet you, Professor Solo.” The accent doesn’t escape him. “I’ve studied your work on LTP and neurodegenerative diseases. Brilliant job. I’m Rey Kenobi.” Her smile stretches across her face.

_ R.K? _

He’s still eyeing her suspiciously and her face puzzles at his expression. Nonetheless, she sits herself back down and gestures to Ben to sit besides her. Luke finishes rumbling around his papers and waits for Ben to sit. “Ben, I was just talking to Rey here about how you’ve yet to fill your empty tutor spot. Rey recently quit her tutoring job at the community college downtown in hopes to obtain one here.” He quirks his eyebrow at Ben, who is still looking at Rey like she’s stolen his firstborn. “Rey is actually good friends with Dameron, your old tutor. He highly recommended her and she’s almost done with her Master’s in Genetics. I’m sure she’ll be a great addition to the Neuro team.”

Ben nods, and faces Rey again. She’s looking at him quite hopeful, as if her whole world was in the palm of his hand. To be quite frank, it probably is. Most of the students who work with Ben receive a glowing offer once they’re done in the field due to the Solo name. And if Dameron highly recommended her, then she should be fit enough for the job. 

He idly wonders what sort of relationship they have.

“I desperately need a tutor for my students. Could you come by my office after my 4pm lecture to discuss details?” Ben offers.

He is rewarded with a bright smile and quick response, “Yes of course, Dr. Solo. I’ll come by later. It was a pleasure to meet you.” She bounces off the chair and shakes his hand again, and bids both Luke and Ben goodbyes before stepping out. Ben watches her leave, trying to piece together a puzzle he’s not sure of.

Once Luke’s office door closes again, Ben turns back to Luke. “Tell me about the girl”, he asks him curiously.

*

Four on the dot rolls around, and Ben is exhausted. His last lecture of the day was uneventful. A bunch of undergrad students who were clearly exhausted were quiet as crickets. He really can’t blame them, lecturing about APA guidelines for their research paper submission isn’t the best thing to end the day with. Plus, Ben doesn’t try to hide the monotone out of his voice. He gets either weirdly high pitched or deeply baritone when trying to add voice inflections. He really shouldn’t be teaching undergrad, especially freshmen. At least his grad students are used to having their soul sucked out of them at this point in their academic career.

As he’s packing his papers into his briefcase, the door to the lecture room opens. He’s about to make it clear to whichever student stayed behind that  _ no, I cannot extend the deadline for your first draft _ but freezes when Rey is timidly walking towards him.

“Miss Kenobi.” He offers her a small smile. “I was just about to head up to my office for our meeting.”

Rey smiles shyly, “I wanted to beat you and see if it's okay if we could perhaps go get some coffee first? Luke told me you love a good cup of coffee and I recently discovered a new shop not too far from here.” She leads him outside of the room and into the hallway.

Ben almost forgot that she might be the coffee thief haunting him.

He’s lagging a bit behind as they make their way to her car. He’s trying to think of a clever way of how to say:  _ Hey, i think you stole my coffee multiple times a while ago and I’ve been trying to spot a girl with three hair buns and I think its you-- _

Rey unlocks her car and they settle inside. Ben should be feeling a little awkward, her tiny Volkswagen is far too small for his redwood tree legs, and she has these little yellow fuzzy dice hanging from her rearview mirror. Plus he barely met this girl hours ago. Instead, he feels anxious, waiting to see if the events of the past will unfold. The fluidity of her dulcet voice isn’t helping his nerves either.

“Excuse the lack of space, I know you’re quite tall.” She sends over an apologetic smile to him while pulling out of the parking lot, which makes it now four times she’s smiled at him. Not that he’s keeping count. “I haven’t had coffee all day, I appreciate you letting us meet there instead of here. I would’ve been forced to get coffee from here or the shop across the street.” She scrunches up her face and shakes her head. “They’ve messed up my order a couple of times in the past month.”

Ben scoffs, knowing where she’s headed with this story.

Rey offers a small chuckle. “Sorry, I swear I’m not usually this prissy over something as millennial as coffee. It’s just been weird, I keep getting the wrong type of coffee. I ask for a vanilla latte and I get these tasteless flat whites.” She shivers for added dramatic effect. “Whoever is ordering them, they need to get better taste buds.” Ben bites his lips together to not blurt out what he’s thinking.

They reach the cafe and Ben hates it already.

It's the definition of a super preppy, yuppie coffee shop that tried a little bit too hard. The outside exterior resembles a flower shop, with orchids and hydrangeas covering the windows and walls, and overbearing calligraphy highlighting the speciality drinks of the day. The interior is even worse, with psychedelic music blaring across the shop and every barista wearing some type of paperboy cap. 

They get in line to order and although Ben offers to pay, Rey firmly believes in paying for her own items. Ben orders first, a plain flat white, and he’s careful to spell out “K.R.” as his name. Rey is too busy deciding on her choice of pastry that she doesn’t hear him. For some reason, his heart starts pounding when it's her turn to order. He sort of feels like a jerk for wanting to see if she’s the coffee thief after all. Perhaps her three hair bun style is much more popular than he realizes, which wouldn’t be too out of the question given how clueless he is with popular culture. And surely, R.K is a popular initial in the school, right? Why does he even bother with K.R. anymore in the first place?

As he’s pondering, he hears her voice state clearly: “R.K.”

He fights the urge to pump his fist in the air in victory.

Now the question that remains is  _ how does she manage to get the wrong cup of coffee _ ? Before he can indulge any scenarios, Rey is in his space again and is animatedly talking about becoming a prospective tutor. He catches only a little bit of what she’s saying because he’s too busy trying to see if their drinks are going to be done at the same time.

“Order for K.R.” The barista says as chirpy as he can. 

Ben feels ridiculous. This whole situation is ridiculous. 

But he can’t help but feel a sweet validation when Rey bounces up from her heels to grab the coffee cup from the counter. She’s about to walk away but Ben purposely blocks her, and she’s forced to stop in her tracks. She looks up at him confused, maybe with a little embarrassment since her cheeks visibly heat up. Ben barely notices that her forehead lines up with his chin.

“Miss Kenobi, I believe you have my order,” he murmurs slowly, the deep timbre of his voice making it sound more accusatory than needed.

She forces out a small laugh, eyebrows knitting together, clearly not understanding what she’s done. “I’m sorry, the initials on the cup are mine.” She turns the cup in her hands around so he can see it. “See, K.R.” she smiles smugly.

All Ben can really do is just laugh a small, wild, outrageous laugh. Rey is clearly thrown off. Poor girl is probably not going to be interested in this position anymore after this. 

“We’ll see about that.” He smirks. He steps around her to grab the new cup of coffee that the barista placed on the counter, ready to call out the order but stops when he sees Ben there to pick it up. He spins around to see Rey still frozen in her tracks and not following his actions. He turns the cup around to reveal the correct order of initials. The dawn of sudden realization slowly appears across her face.

Ben stretches out his hand to her. “Hey R.K. I’m K.R. I think we’ve been stealing from each other.”

*

The whole agenda gets thrown out the window.

The pair sit down the entire evening in the coffee shop discussing the details of their silly encounters. Ben learns that Rey struggles from a form of auditory dyslexia that makes her jumble letters and numbers in a different order than originally said. He can’t really be mad, he knows all too well about what she struggles with. Rey on the other hand, is incredulous at the fact that he takes his coffee way too plain. 

“You know there’s such a thing as sugar, right?” Rey teases.

Ben can’t hide the roll of his eyes. “I’m sure that’s something you know all too well. Seriously, who puts  _ four _ pumps of vanilla in a small latte?” Rey scoffs at his tone. “I’m surprised you even have teeth at this point.” 

A loud laugh escapes from her lips before she can contain it. She covers her mouth with her hand as if she’s surprised at her reaction. She clears her throat and smooths her yellow sweater before returning a question to him. “So, tell me Professor: If your name is Ben Solo, why do you have a different order name?” She quirks an eyebrow at him in question.

He inhales deeply and lets out the breath slowly. “I assume since you work with my uncle closely that you’re familiar with the Solo name?” Rey nods her in acknowledgement. “I stopped using my real name for a long time because of my parents. When I was a student here, professors had biases towards me and I wasn’t comfortable with it. It didn’t work for a while because people still recognized me for my face. Eventually those people in the university left but I was still cautious to use my name outside of the school. It’s just habit, really. Kinda silly. I always thought I was safe using the initials K.R., but I guess not anymore, right Miss Kenobi?”

They both laugh in unison, and continue their conversation for another two hours. He admits he’s avoided ordering coffee after she stole his at Target. She apologizes for continually stealing his coffee, and admits she’s too busy on her phone to examine if she got the right order before taking it. The pair eventually do get the hint though that the coffeeshop is about to close soon and assemble their things together. Ben walks Rey to her car and with the purple dusk on the horizon, he feels like this is a cheesy scene from a romance movie. That thought rattles him a bit because Rey is supposed to be his tutor.

As if Rey could hear his thoughts, she changes the conversation back to the available tutor position.

“I hope the fact that I’ve been stealing your coffee doesn’t disqualify me from possibly interviewing for the tutor position? I know we didn’t even talk about that tonight but could we reschedule again?” she asks hopefully, with a bashful smile.

Ben chuckles. “Miss Kenobi, forgive me for not being transparent. I already signed the paper transfer with Luke earlier today in his office. He informed me well enough of your work and credits that made me believe you’re the perfect candidate. I am honored you're willing to become a tutor for my students.”

Rey looks at him stunned. “Wow, that’s incredible! Thank you for the opportunity.” She gives him a smile and shakes his hand. “I’ll send you over my schedule in an email tomorrow so I can start right away.” She opens her car door and before she can get in, she turns to him again. “So, you hired me knowing I could have been the potential coffee thief? I can’t say I would’ve extended the same mercy to you, Professor,” she teases.

Ben starts retreating backwards, hands inside his trouser pockets. He looks amused at her admission. “You know what they say, Miss Kenobi. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” They share another laugh and before he turns around to walk home, he finally says “And please call me Ben. We’re going to be working closely together now.” She smiles back and bids him a goodnight.

Later at night, when he’s in bed reading some last minute emails before setting his early morning alarm, his phone dings with a notification of a new email. He opens it to see that Rey already sent him her schedule. She also included a number of tutor websites that make it easy to create appointments with his students. The type of dedication he sees already assures him that she’s going to be a fine tutor. He notices she signs the email with  _ Rey _ instead of her full name.

Yeah, she’s going to be a fine tutor indeed. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do I smell some plot cooking up?
> 
> Also, if you're an artist and want to draw some art for any of this for commission, please contact me on Twitter! @Linaxlight


End file.
